Monday, November 14, 2016

The second episode of the fifth
season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Darmok,
provides and interesting example of communication and metaphor. I suggest
watching the entire episode as it is very good, however, for the sake of space
I would like to look at 3 small segments of the episode. In this episode,
Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise are sent to investigate a message
from an alien race. This race has been encountered before however, earlier
starship captains described them as incomprehensible. The universal translators
translate the language into English, however, it is not the words themselves
that are incomprehensible, but how they are putting the words together, and,
what I would term (and becomes apparent later in the episode) is the frame of
reference in which they are speaking. Picard’s mission is to attempt to communicate
with them and establish formal relations.

First Contact: 0:00 mins – 4:10 mins

The first time the Tamarians speak the
lack of understanding of the Enterprise’s crew is evident in their facial
expressions. Notice how the Tamarian captain repeats himself more slowly and
articulately. This is a technique that is used when people of other languages are
confronted with misunderstanding or when adults talk to children. I’ve noticed
Americans tend to speak to anyone with an accent in this manner, as an adult
speaking to a child that does not understand. When Picard first speaks to the
Tamarians, they too are equally confused. There is however, still some
communicative understanding. When the Tamarian first officer begins to laugh
after Picard speaks, the tone of Tamarian captains voice becomes stern and
admonishing with a harsh gesture toward him. Even though we do not understand
what he is saying, backchannel cues like facial expression, gesture, and tone
give us an idea of what is happening.

The following exchange between the
Tamarian first officer and captain provide these same cues. Even without
knowing what they are saying, they are clearly frustrated about the lack of
understanding and attempting to understand why they can’t successfully communicate,
and the first officer seems to be suggesting things the captain does not agree
with and again reprimands him. Note that after the Tamarian captain brandishes
his knives and beams Captain Picard and himself to the planet, the crew of the
Enterprise automatically assume hostile intentions. Brandishing weapons in our
culture is an aggressive move, however, in the Tamarian culture, this may not
be so.

Eureka!: 23:52 mins – 25:00 mins

I found
this small exchange between Picard and the Tamarian captain fascinating. A
little earlier in the episode, Picard begins to have a very small understanding
when the Tamarian captain does not want to kill him, instead giving Picard the
second knife. I found this moment interesting because Picard finally discovers
why he cannot understand the Tamarians. They speak in metaphor. The only way
Picard was able to understand was to be placed in the exact situation that the
Tamarian captain is referencing. Because we understand language in literal
terms, the literal situation itself was needed to illustrate what the Tmarian
captain was saying.

I also found it interesting that
even when under immediate threat of attack, when they finally understand each
other, they stop being concerned with the beast and become elated. Communication
between two people that do not understand each other is upsetting, frustrating,
and angering. It is such a simple concept necessary to our social existence,
and when we can’t do it, we become incensed. As conscious and social creatures,
one of the most important things to us is to be heard and understood. The
elation the two captains feel, and the exclamations they make show how
important understanding other people and being understood is to us. Even the
possibly deadly creature becomes less important than the joy of an
understanding between two people that could not communicate.

Frame of Reference: 28:00 mins – 29:27 mins

Here we get
an explanation of how the Tamarians speak. They are highly abstract and use
narrative imagery to communicate. The narrative imagery comes from their own
mytho-historical accounts. The lack of communication, it seems comes from our
lack of a frame of reference. I feel this relates to our analysis of culture
and language. Some misunderstanding in our own world does not come from the
words used, but the way in which our language can reference things in our own
culture. The first examples that come to mind are idioms. Idioms can be
difficult to translate because they are colloquial metaphors. Think of the
idiom “not playing with a full deck” when referencing someone that lacks
intelligence. We understand the ‘playing’ refers to a game and ‘full deck’
means a game of cards. When one does not have a full deck of cards, they cannot
play the game successfully, which translates to, when someone does not have
enough intelligence they cannot function successfully. This would be completely
lost on a culture that did not play card games. In fact, they would not even
know we were talking about cards when referring to ‘deck’. Someone may assume
we are talking about a ship’s deck, or a wooden balcony deck. In terms of
language and culture, one needs a frame of reference. The frame of reference
for the Tamarians being their myth and history, something the Enterprise crew
does not have.

This
episode provides fantastic insight into culture and communication. It shows us
a culture that speaks strictly through metaphor and narrative imagery. The only
way to fully understand the Tamarians is through understanding their culture.
Culture and language are firmly intertwined. We use narrative imagery as well,
however, it is not our sole form of communication. Much misunderstanding of
communication in our world comes from not understanding the cultures that are
communicating. I, however, agree with what captain Picard stated in the
beginning of the episode (during the first clip): “In my experience
communication is a matter of patience, imagination. I would like to believe
these are qualities that we have in sufficient measure”.

Friday, October 21, 2016

At the third and final debate in Las Vegas
tonight, Trump proved his incompetence in front of the nation. Aside from
proving that he has no clear ideas on policy or how to run this country, he
also demonstrated (unfortunately, not for the final time) that he is a
misogynist. On top of all of his ridiculous comments about women’s bodies, the
sexual assault accusations against him and confirmed accounts of walking in on
teenagers changing, his most shirking moment came as he called Hillary, “such a
nasty woman” with a lowered voice, as she was mid-sentence, in front of the
entire country.

In this moment, Trump’s true
feelings on women could not have come across any clearer—to him, and men like
him, women should be seen and not heard. They should only be seen until he
wants to look at them, (I’m guessing for Trump this is from about age 15 to 30)
and after this there is no place for women in Trump’s world. They should be
discarded, kicked out and replaced—on to the next wife.

As Hillary
talked about raising taxes on the wealthy and then empowering women through the
Affordable Care Act, Trump attempted to overpower her with aggression, saying,
“Such a nasty woman,” in a dejected, snarky tone—on two separate occasions. The
comment was uttered in a similar way with which he repeated, “it is so sad” or
“so bad” throughout the night, in response to everything from the economy to
immigration.

Donald Trump is the Zika mosquito in America’s ear.

His blatant disrespect of women is
something we need to keep in check. His brand of misogyny threatens to spill
over into policy, taking rights away from all women and setting us back 100
years (when America was “great”). This is the crux of Trump, and why we need to
fear all candidates like him. He threatens to take control of a woman’s right
to choose with blanket statements and scare tactics, as though abortions happen
four days before birth. His followers and the men who think like him are unable
to see things beyond black and white, or nasty women and sweet ones.

Unable to
compete fairly with Hillary, as he cannot match her record or begin to approach
her intellect, Trump reverts to schoolyard bullying tactics, hurling insults
that would be considered below the belt in any forum, let alone a national
debate. And as he is a disenfranchised male, powerless to his own
self-destruction, his only approach is to claim the election is rigged. Woe is
Trump.

His other idea?
Call Hillary “such a nasty woman” because he cannot match her, because he does
not want to have sex with her, and because she is beating him fair and square.
Trump is the little boy on the playground, losing to a girl and calling her
mean—but not as lighthearted as that. Calling Hillary “such a nasty woman,” not
to mention interrupting her mid-sentence, was meant to throw her off her game.
That comment was a blatant disrespect of all women, everywhere.

Its digs like
this that show—arguably even more than the “pussy grabbing” comments—that he is
outwardly hateful of women. Trump is in crisis mode, as he should be. There is
no way that American women (and men) are going to stand idly by as his
1940s-style rhetoric of where a woman belongs, or how a woman should behave, goes
unchecked. He doesn’t just think Hillary is nasty; he thinks all women not
kissing up to him (or letting him kiss them without their consent) are
nasty.

The Hillary
Clinton camp is not going to let Trump's insults go quietly. In a genius turn
of events, the campaign immediately bought the sitenastywomengetshitdone.com, which
redirects to Clinton's official website. By re-appropriatingthe term "nasty," Clinton
and women everywhere are asserting that casual sexist lingo is not okay; no,
Mr. Trump, you cannot call Hillary "nasty," or insult Ruth Bader
Ginsberg because she does not agree with you.

What we're reading and tuning into

Disclaimer

What I post here is intended only as a forum to discuss ideas. Please be aware that referred to research or sources evolve over time so the documents referred to on this blog may be superseded by new information.

Oh, and BTW I use the following broad definition of Health Literacy:“A health literate person is able to use health concepts and information generatively—applying information to novel situations. This is critical to our efforts to prepare the public to react to complex public health emergencies.”(From invited paper presented by me - Surgeon General’s Report on Health Literacy, September 7 2006, Bethesda Maryland http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/healthliteracy/toc.html)